Harvest Festival Hoedown 2009

We don't have HFH 2008 square dance weekend festival under our belt yet --it's coming up this November. Still, we need to plan ahead to the 2009 event sooner rather than later.

The committee has selected its three preferred staff callers. While each has verbally confirmed, I'm hesitant to name them here until we have signatures on paper, just in case negotiations for contract details crash & burn.

Sadly, the person negotiating for DCLS and the HFH committee is... me.

I can do the job and, being a caller (albeit junior), I have better insight into caller issues than nearly all dancers. I'm also a relatively senior member of the club, have experience as a club board officer and have been on the HFH committee for many years. The problem? As the caller coordinator/negotiator, I'm blocked by conflict of interest from being staff caller for our own club's event. Bummer.

I'd like to think I'm ready to move up to fly-in caller status, although I readily admit it's more of a stretch goal than something within my immediate and easily-attainable grasp. Still, the obvious place to start is with my primary home club's event. If I'm negotiating contracts for the next two seasons, the soonest I'd be able to actually participate as a staff caller would be 2011. Presuming, of course, that the committee & caller booker for that season believes I can do it and doesn't have other favourites in mind.

Ah, well... duty first, personal ambition later. These will be fun events with or without me.

Harvest Festival Hoedown 2009

We don't have HFH 2008 square dance weekend festival under our belt yet --it's coming up this November. Still, we need to plan ahead to the 2009 event sooner rather than later.

The committee has selected its three preferred staff callers. While each has verbally confirmed, I'm hesitant to name them here until we have signatures on paper, just in case negotiations for contract details crash & burn.

Sadly, the person negotiating for DCLS and the HFH committee is... me.

I can do the job and, being a caller (albeit junior), I have better insight into caller issues than nearly all dancers. I'm also a relatively senior member of the club, have experience as a club board officer and have been on the HFH committee for many years. The problem? As the caller coordinator/negotiator, I'm blocked by conflict of interest from being staff caller for our own club's event. Bummer.

I'd like to think I'm ready to move up to fly-in caller status, although I readily admit it's more of a stretch goal than something within my immediate and easily-attainable grasp. Still, the obvious place to start is with my primary home club's event. If I'm negotiating contracts for the next two seasons, the soonest I'd be able to actually participate as a staff caller would be 2011. Presuming, of course, that the committee & caller booker for that season believes I can do it and doesn't have other favourites in mind.

Ah, well... duty first, personal ambition later. These will be fun events with or without me.